Ukrainian rights for THE MANTICORE acquired by The Black Sheep, and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nomination!

Posted on 17.10.2024

How is everyone’s FBF going? Amidst the buzz, we have a mid-fair rights deal! Ukrainian rights to THE MANTICORE by Maria Turtschaninoff and illustrator Peter Bergting have sold to The Black Sheep, an imprint of V. Books – XXI. In the publisher’s words, the imprint “focuses on books with social and psychological topics as well as those addressing problems of emotional intelligence and social responsibility. It also creates bilingual editions to help Ukrainian children learn foreign languages.”

About THE MANTICORE:

The Manticore is told from the perspective of a young girl called Li, who starts suspecting that her stepmother is in fact a Manticore, an ancient monster intending on devouring the protagonist and her baby brother. She realizes that no one can help her because no one would believe her. So as the Manticore starts fattening up the children, the protagonist hunts for a way to defeat her. She soon realizes that the only way to kill a Manticore is with a mythical object: the horn of a unicorn. But where can she possibly find one?

Maria Turtschaninoff is a multiple award-winning fantasy author, published in 30 countries, and Peter Bergting is the author and/or illustrator of over 50 books of fantasy, sci-fi and horror.

Check out our fully illustrated English PDF of THE MANTICORE here!

And with perfect coincidental timing, THE MANTICORE’s author, Maria Turtschaninoff, along with our other talent: author Salla Simukka and author/illustrator Sanna Pelliccioni have been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, one of the most prestigious children’s literature awards that picks nominees from all over the world! Among the international talent, they are joined by big name children’s authors like Kate DiCamillo and Gene Luen Yang. The winner will receive 5 million Swedish kronor along with an illustrated diploma hand-lettered by a calligrapher. The laureate will be announced April 1 2025, meaning one person, at least, will have a happy April Fool’s Day.

Best of luck to Maria, Salla, and Sanna!!!

Publication Info:
Raben &Sjögren/Förlaget, 2024, 96 pp, 4c illustrations

Reading Material:
Fully illustrated English PDF & Swedish edition

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Raben &Sjögren/Förlaget (Swedish), Tammi (Finnish)
DENMARK: Bogoo
UKRAINE: V. Books – XXI/The Black Sheep

About author

Maria Turtschaninoff

Maria Turtschaninoff is known for crafting lyrical, historically inspired fantasy stories starring strong female protagonists. In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, she counts Philip Pullman, Ursula K. Le Guin and C.S. Lewis among her favorite authors. She is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, winner of the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, winner of the Thank You for the Book Award, a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2020-2024), and winner of the 2014 Finlandia Junior Prize. In 2024, Maria Turtschaninoff won the Eeva Joenpelto Literary Prize (10,000 euro award) for her literary masterpiece Inherited Land.

Her Red Abbey Chronicles YA trilogy has been sold into 30 languages, while her first adult novel Inherited Land has been sold to 23 territories. Maria has a Master of Arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer.

About author

Peter Bergting

Peter Bergting is one of Sweden’s most renowned comic book artists and fantasy and children book illustrators. His career began in the late ’80s, providing art for games such as Mutant Chronicles, Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire, and Shadowrun. In 2006 he released his first comic book for Image Comics, followed by a run on Strange Girl with Rick Remender. After several graphic novels for IDW, working with Richard Morgan, Alex Irvine, and Joe R. Lansdale, Peter landed his first job for Dark Horse Comics, providing artwork for the Hellboy Roleplaying Game.

Since 2013, Peter has been working with Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden on various titles in the Mignolaverse, such as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Frankenstein – to date, more than 44 comic books and eight graphic novels. Peter is the author and/or artist of more than 50 books, including 20 graphic novels. In addition, Peter has provided hundreds of comics, children's, and fantasy books with covers and interior artwork for authors such as Clive Barker, Philip Pullman, J. R. R. Tolkien, Michelle Paver, and Frank Frazetta. For Swedish publisher Semic, Peter has written and illustrated a total of eleven fantasy novels and artbooks.

Peter has been nominated for the August award twice, for “Kråkorna”, and “Vi kommer snart hem igen”. In addition, he has won the Adamson statuette.